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How to: Setup and Use Mobile Hotspot [Beginners’ Guide]

One of the most important features to Android smartphone owners, especially for those who travel regularly or want to take full advantage of high-speed LTE networks, is mobile hotspot. It’s also called “tethering,” but carriers have done their best to move away from that word for the most part and onto “hotspot” which is much more marketing friendly. With a mobile hotspot, you can turn your phone into an on-the-go WiFi router for your other WiFi enabled devices to connect to. No longer are you stuck with fingers crossed, hoping that you next location has free WiFi or a password available. With your phone, and hotspot enabled, you can be connected from anywhere.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when it comes to mobile hotspot, though. Your carrier typically provides a hotspot service at an additional charge, but there are also free ways to get your phone to tether, however, it typically requires rooting your phone and voiding its warranty. This tutorial is for the built-in hotspot service that can be activated through your carrier.

Instructions:

1. From your main home screen, head into Settings.
2. In the first section, you may see an option for Hotspot under WiFi and Bluetooth. Tap on it.

*If you do not see Hotspot from the main Settings screen, tap on the “More” button. You should see an option on the next screen that says “Tethering and mobile hotspot” or something along those lines.

3. From there, you’ll find shortcuts to change all sorts of settings.
4. You’ll want to enter “Mobile Hotspot settings” to at least find out the name of the network you’ll be creating.
5. From this menu you’ll also be able to enable a password, change the network type, etc.
6. Once you have it setup, all you need to do is activate it.

*On most phones, there will be a check box at the main Mobile Hotspot settings screen.

*If you have not yet activated the service through our carrier, you will likely be prompted to do so at this point.

8. It’ll also notify you as connections are made to your hotspot network.
9. Once it shows that it’s live, you can jump on your laptop or other WiFi device.
10. You connect just like you would to your home WiFi network, in your WiFi device’s WiFi settings.
11. Enjoy your mobile internet!

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ever since the ICS update from verizon my droid bionic’s hotspot has been f*cked. constant problems establishing a connection with my laptop and i can’t adjust any of the settings. it just says “unfortunately, settings has stopped”

Savan Ghetiya

step 1: download 1-click easy tether
step 2: F U verizon !

antinorm

What hotspot app (or ROM) is that? I haven’t seen any that support hiding the SSID like that.

mmoreimi

Are you guys happy with your data speeds on the connected device while tethered? I can do a speed test on my phone’s LTE as is and it’s ridiculously fast. Once i tether my laptop or tablet, it’s only a fraction of what i get in the speed test. and i use the same speed test app on my tablet that i use on my phone. Secondly, do you think VZW’s hotspot app produces different speeds apposed to Wifi Tether app we all love? Thanks!!!

cybergoobr

Just called verizon to ask about a fee activating this feature. They do charge if your using an older plan. Its free if your using one of their “new, share everything” plans, which does cost more in my case.

mcdonsco

I’ve been using hotspot via root for years now but its never, ever been reliable. About 50% of the time the device connected to and using the hotspot shows its connected but can’t transfer anything even though the phone is showing a solid 4g connection.

Never been able to get it to work 100% of the time. And its not just my particular phone because I’ve had several phones in the last few years (at least 6-7), and this has been a problem on every one of them.

Has anybody here ever gotten in trouble for tethering while on a Verizion unlimited plan without paying for it?

T4rd

Not that I’ve ever heard or experienced from doing it myself since I got my OG Droid over 3 years ago. I’m pretty sure they don’t care (for now). I’ve seen a few people use over 100+ GBs without any penalties or acknowledgments whatsoever.

Similar but different – any one know how to create a LAN between devices, separate from data access? For example, let’s say my faimly is travelling in the mountains without data access, but we want to connect multiple Android devices together (for shared media, Minecraft, etc). I’ve been playing with PeerDeviceNet, but it’s not quite as simple as I expected. Any thoughts?

yeah, I thought it was free now as well- or does this not apply to those of us who still have unlimited w/Verizon? I had been using Foxfi but haven’t needed it in a while, and have since had the JB update to by Razr…of course I’ve read Foxfi doesn’t worth with JB, though haven’t tried myself- so can I simply use the Mobile Hotspot app?.

JoshGroff

IIRC, it’s only free on tiered plans.

BigWormBigPerm

I have unlimited as well on Verizon, with JB on Galaxy Nexus unrooted…Foxfi no longer works but I use Fattin Hot Spot for free and have no problems

“In addition, the company recently revised its service offerings such that consumers on usage-based pricing plans may tether, using any application, without paying an additional fee.” It’s for all tiered plans.

One of my new neighbors has been running a “FBI Surveillance Van” wifi. Really makes me want to dust off my black hat and commence to sniffing. At the very least, I have been planning on going war walking to identify the house.

normmcgarry

I’m a fan of “W32.Sasser.Worm.”

S2556

My home wifi has been “RCMP_SURVEILLANCE_VAN” for a while now (RCMP because I live in Canada) Has gotten me a few laughs for sure.

Since I’ve rooted and ROMed my GNex I haven’t had to worry about VZW charging me for a “Hotspot” feature, but I am suspicious if they are throttling me after I start. Anyway I used to use two apps on my phone before rooting. One was PDA Net which required a usb connection to your laptop and a desktop client. The other was an app called FoxFi. Both worked fantastically and I highly recommend them for those who are too unsure about rooting and don’t want to pay extra for the data you already are using.

Foxfi works great however it is now a paid app (there is a free version but it has a time / data limit). As for the throttling I don’t think Verizon does anything unless you are an EXTREME data user (I mean like 300+GB) because I am 2 weeks into the billing cycle and just crossed the 50gb mark while my speeds are still blazing fast!

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